Dutian's matter is actually quite interesting.

Liu Bei knew that many people's evaluation of Liu Xiu was always that Dutian failed and was almost ousted from the throne, but this was not the case.

Liu Xiu's Dutian cannot be regarded as a failure, it should be said that the imperial power and local forces have re-reached a certain state of balance after the war in the last years of Xinmang.

However, Dutian did not succeed completely, and Liu Xiu did not completely solve the problem, but only eliminated and beat it, and used political and military means to improve it to a certain extent, thus delaying the outbreak of the problem.

Liu Xiu's field was not without hard work, and Liu Xiu was not blind to the problems caused by the high concentration of land, so in the early days of the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu, who achieved the imperial industry with the support of Hebei Haoqiang and Nanyang Haoqiang, did not attack Haoqiang.

He patiently retired the nobles in a long period of time, built a scholar's platform, revived Taixue, supported the Zuo Spring and Autumn School, abolished the county soldiers, and demonstrated the imperial power step by step, reducing the power of the nobles and local powers, so as to achieve the goal of centralizing power.

It was not until the fifteenth year after he ascended the throne and became emperor that he sat firmly on the throne, stabilized the world, and consolidated his power.

As soon as the local officials colluded with the local powerful forces and made false demands against him, he ruthlessly killed more than a dozen county guards and a number of officials, so as to force the officials to attack the powerful landlords.

The local officials were frightened by Liu Xiu's killing, so they had no choice but to carry out the order and attack the powerful landlords, causing a strong backlash from the powerful landlords and raising troops to resist the Dutian policy.

However, in the central government, Liu Xiu achieved centralization of power through Shangshutai, and at the local level, through the abolition of the county soldiers, the strong cadres and weak branches were realized, so the resistance of the local county state was greatly attenuated, and it could not really threaten Liu Xiu's rule.

However, the social conditions in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the social conditions in the period of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty were completely different, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty could strengthen the centralization of power to a certain extreme, and he did not pretend to anyone, but Liu Xiu did not have such a foundation.

The strong power of the local militaristic and powerful clans, and the strong political power of the scholars at the central level all effectively restrained the monarchy, so that Liu Xiu, who was the founding emperor, could not achieve a complete absolute monarchy through Dutian.

Despite this, through means such as killing and relocating the powerful clan to settle down in other places, Liu Xiu's Dutian still achieved certain results, taking away part of the political and economic interests from the powerful clan, so that the imperial power and local forces re-reached a certain balance.

It is conceivable that in the process of killing and confronting each other between the imperial power and the local forces, Liu Xiu and the local forces found that they had reached some kind of balance, and neither side was willing to continue the killing to avoid causing a larger social unrest, so they compromised with each other.

The Eastern Han Empire was a continuation of the Western Han Empire, and the establishment of the Eastern Han Empire was not a new rule on the ruins, but a battle fought by a group of vested interests of the old dynasty to restore the old order.

The motive for the establishment of the Eastern Han Empire was not to seek innovation, but to seek restoration, so there was no need to kill you to the death.

The background color of the Dutian policy may never be a drastic change, but a kind of varied and mutual compromise.

Liu Xiu wanted to reach a compromise between the central and local governments through Dutian, so that the pattern of the Eastern Han Dynasty would not develop in the direction of rapid collapse.

Therefore, the Dutian policy has always been continuous, and the Dutian policy continued to be maintained after Liu Xiu's death, and several generations of emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty have maintained the results of the Dutian policy, and from time to time they have dealt heavy blows to some of the leading guys, demonstrating the power of the Dutian policy.

So this balance is well maintained.

The central imperial power and the local centrifugal forces have repeatedly tug-of-war within the framework of the Dutian policy, and have always maintained a certain balance.

The time point when this balance was broken should be in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, when the years of internal and external wars represented by the Hanqiang War greatly consumed the power of the Eastern Han Dynasty and were very painful to be consumed by the war.

At the same time, the politics of the Eastern Han Dynasty became increasingly chaotic.

There are few adult sons, and there are many juvenile and even young sons, and the political forces of eunuchs, relatives, and scholars are on the stage, and the situation of a centralized power is tossed and crumbling.

In this situation, it is almost impossible to maintain the long-term implementation of a policy.

After the balance was broken, the illusion of prosperity that the elites of the Eastern Han Empire had painstakingly maintained began to show signs of collapse, and the empire began to collapse from the peasants at the bottom, and finally it was out of control.

Lu Zhi, as a high-ranking official of the central government, as Shang Shuling, who was actually in charge of the world's government affairs before, is very clear about this point, so he knows very well the significance of Dutian to the Eastern Han Dynasty and the significance of Dutian to the local power.

He had studied some dossiers of the past era, and had a deep understanding of the implementation of Dutian's policy.

So when he proposed to solve the problem through Dutian, Liu Bei was not surprised, and even thought that Dutian was indeed a clear way for the Eastern Han Empire to redeem itself.

However, with the power and enforcement strength of the central government of the Eastern Han Dynasty today, whether the policy of land can still be implemented and implemented at the local level is a question worth exploring.

Anyway, Liu Bei thinks that there is almost no such possibility.

The Luoyang court has already been riddled with a serious illness, not to mention the Chang'an government during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and even the Luoyang government during the Liu Xiu period is far inferior.

Therefore, the equilibrium state that Liu Xiu can achieve is not something that the current Liu Hong government can go back to.

Moreover, doing so will inevitably lead to war, resulting in a war on a much larger scale than the Yellow Turban Uprising, which will be even more difficult to pacify.

"Teacher, of course Dutian's policy is a good policy, but for the current Han, is Dutian's policy really meaningful? Or is it a good thing or a bad thing for Dahan to implement the policy of Dutian now? ”

Lu Zhi looked at Liu Bei, was silent for a while, and showed a reluctant smile.

"Xuande, it seems that you understand everything."

"It's not that I understand everything, it's just that the disciples also know that the strategies that worked at one time and the other time may not be feasible now."

Liu Bei said with a smile: "Not to mention others, the officials in the court, including the disciples, which one does not have a large piece of fertile land in their hands?" Which family behind the scholars of the ancient literature school does not have a large piece of fertile land? The powerful eunuchs around His Majesty, which one does not have a large piece of fertile land?

The people who may become your strategy to implement the Dutian are all your enemies, not to mention the people of the modern literary school, even including the Zhuojun Lu clan and the Zhuojun Liu clan.

Teachers, including those around us, are you really willing to cooperate with Dutian's strategy? If one's own interests are harmed, who can be as calm as water? ”

Lu Zhi took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

"At this time, at that time, I also understand this truth, and I also know that the current local out-of-control chaos, Dutian exists in name only, and it can no longer be effective, and forcibly re-establish Dutian, I am afraid that the decree has not yet reached the locality, and I have already been pointed out."

"So, teacher, at least for this time, I will never support you in any way to implement the policy of Dutian."

Liu Bei said: "There is no need to do anything that is possible of success, there is no need to do it, it is a wise choice to keep a useful body and wait for the situation to change." ”

"At this point?"

Lu Zhi looked at Liu Bei and asked, "Xuande, you say, at least at this time?" ”

"Yes, teacher, the disciples also think that the strategy of Dutian is an effective strategy."

Liu Bei nodded and said, "The disciple just feels that now is not the time to implement this strategy. ”

Lu Zhi stroked his beard.

"So, when do you think it's a good time to execute the strategy of Dutian?"

"When the teacher no longer carries out the policy of the field with the heart of death, it will be a good time."

Liu Bei sat down in a precarious position, bowed respectfully to Lu Zhi and said: "Dutian is not a temporary strategy, there is no need for the teacher to be in a hurry, otherwise the government will die, or even if the person is not dead, the government has ended, and the teacher's ambition has been consumed in vain." ”

(End of chapter)